Tonto National Monument

The Tonto National Monument is a set of cliff dwellings - the upper and the lower - that were inhabited by the people of the Salt River, the Salado, some 700 years ago. Remnants of their culture have been found and preserved over the years, artifacts that give us a better understanding of their way of life.

Of the two sets of cliff dwellings, the lower is more accessible. A half-mile climb rises 350 feet to the structure on a well-paved path.

The upper dwelling can only be seen with a park ranger/guide, and reservations are required.

After a period of vandalism and theft from the dwellings, President Theodore Roosevelt, in 1907, declared the site a national monument.

The dwelling sites are located near the south end of Roosevelt Lake's west shore, on Highway 188.

It was not a family that lived in this Lower Cliff Dwelling, rather a village. The two-story structure comprised eight rooms that were used for various purposes, including food preparation, storage and community meetings and gatherings. And, of course, some of them were the private homes of families. Anywhere blackness is seen on the walls or ceilings is where a fire had been built for either cooking or keeping warm. The deepest parts of the dwelling are more intact than the front since they were more protected from the harsh weather. It was probably flooding of what is now Roosevelt Lake that drove the Salado to build at the top of the mountain rather than on the basin floor.